The great Aurora Borealis night of September 7 2017 – part 1

Finally I am back writing the blog. So much has happened in the past weeks, but one night stood out above all others. The Aurora Borealis night of September 7th as a result of a big solar flare. I’ll start right after I address the readers in German and Finnish.

It began one day earlier..

..on the sun. A massive X9.3 solar flare errupted on September 6th, 2017 – the strongest flare in over ten years. Charged sun particles where ‘thrown’ into space and traveled towards Earth. A strong geomagnetic storm was predicted which would usually bring a great show of aurora borealis. But when exactly would the show start?

During that same week I was scouting out locations in Lapland for the new aurora autumn tour 2018. I love the idea of chasing colors on the ground in daytime and colors in the sky during night. When I read about the huge flare I was both excited and skeptical. A few times huge flares gave me hope and put me in aurora-mania-mode. I drove hundreds of kilometers only to wait through the night with nothing happening in the skies. Sometimes the predicted aurora storm was late or missed Earth completely. Or it would hit during daytime and the best part of the show was invisible.

Looking at the weather forecast..

..and potential locations, I made my North from Muonio, where I had spent the previous nights. Once I arrived at my next accomodation, I had a quick dinner, change of clothes, packing the gear and off I was again.

At the lake shore I found a nice spot with some rocks in the water and an open view with clear skies around 22.20 hrs. It was still a bit too bright for the aurora, but a short while later, the first signs of the aurora borealis were in the sky. Can you see it?

As it became darker, more and more northern lights were revealed- both in the sky and on the water surface.

During the next hours..

..Northern lights danced in the sky, graciously slow and madly fast. Although it was great, this was not the big show quite yet. At 01.00 most activity was gone but I waited for 30 more minutes. Not much happened and I figured the geomagnetic storm would hit another night. So I made my way back to the car looking forward to a decent amount of sleep.

Just before 02.00 I packed my gear away and started the car. One more look at the webcams, nothing exciting happening. One more look at spaceweather.com and I read, the CME (that plasma cloud from the sun) is due to arrive anytime now!!

To be continued…

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